Joyetech Riftcore Duo RTA Review – No Coils? No Problem!

Joyetech Riftcore Duo RTA Introduction

Coil-less vape technology whilst innovative in idea and concept has proven to be flawed and rather disappointing in past attempts. Firstly the Altus tank from way back in 2016 great concept, poor reviews. Secondly and one I personally reviewed, the NCR RDA from a company called NCR. I cannot comment on the first but the NCR definitely had me excited at first and then quickly changed to disappointment once I actually had a go with it. So here we are now with the latest in coil-less technology – Joyetech Riftcore Duo RTA and this one had me a lot more interested from the off!

The Riftcore duo is brought to us by one of the biggest names in the vaping industry, none other than Joyetech. What is going to make this any better than previous attempts? I knew from the moment I was asked to write an article that better things might be expected given the name behind this project. To me, why would a company of this size and popularity put their name on something that just was not going to cut it! As I had reviewed the NCR I was happy to give this a shot and write a review on it.

Some of the claims made prior to release are that this will contain the safest heating element that has been independently tested in the USA and results will be made public, so full transparency. The element itself will last around 1,000,000 puffs and will be self-cleaning. I keep wanting to call it an RTA but with a million puff lifespan, I am pretty confident that I won’t be rebuilding this other than new cotton anytime soon!

Joyetech Riftcore Duo RTA Unboxing

The Riftcore comes in a hard plastic casing. Inside you will find:

Riftcore Duo Tank

Spare Glass

Precut Cotton Strips

Hex Key

Warranty Card

Quick Start Guide

Joyetech Riftcore Duo RTA Specs

Diameter: 26.0mm

Height: 47.0mm

Capacity: 3.5ml

Deck: Compatible With Joyetech RFC Element Only

Material ( Tank ): Stainless Steel

First Looks

First impressions of the tank, it looks like any other. Just a normal looking tank, nothing swanky or innovative here! Starting up top with a cool honeycomb drip tip (which is replaceable with your own 510 drip tip) moving down to the top cap which rather than unscrewing to fill the tank you slide back. First off remove the drip tip and on one of the sides, you will see a triangle marking indicting to push back. The top cap slides back to reveal a juice fill hole. Much like on the Procore X tank that I also reviewed as part of the Espion Kit review. Below is the 3.5ml chamber to hold your liquid and the chimney part. All of this unscrews to review the deck containing the RFC elements. The RFC elements are preinstalled also as a bonus I found the cotton to also have been installed for me! At the base are three average size airflow holes. The control ring locks at wide open and fully closed. All that is left is to soak, fill and vape away!

Those Elements

So the RFC elements the look interesting, building is easy! You take one of the included cotton strips, or of course your cotton of choice, and install between the two elements. If using your own cotton ensure to cut it at the edge of the deck so it just covers the juice holes in the chimney area. With no cotton installed the elements heat fast, evenly and glow nice and bright this is thanks to the molecular heating technology that has gone into the elements themselves.

Ohm-wise on these you get a stable 0.25 reading with both installed and it is possible to remove one of the elements to achieve a 0.5ohm build using just the one element. I will say that when you take the box of spares out there is a warning card inside that tells you only to remove the element to replace but the manual suggests the above regarding single element builds. For the review, I have kept to the dual build. I know the burning question is going to be what is the element made of? There is not any information on that yet, but I will add it in at a later point as I suspect it will become evident in the test reports that Joyetech will be making public. I did find the below graph on the Joyetech website but it does not really give anything away in terms of material, other than that this is clearly marked as safe.

Is Joyetech Riftcore Duo RTA Safe?

Now make of that what you will, it does suggest the material is certainly safe by looking at the green markings on the scale. The sub-note points out for reference only and the TPD emissions report due later. I will update the article as and when that surfaces. My thoughts, Joyetech is a brand to be trusted so I personally am going to stick with the side that it is a safe material to use. Sure the argument will swing to the other side of that cigarette companies said smoking was safe all those years ago and that is indeed true. As vapers, we hear these same arguments on an ever reoccurring basis now. The fact remains vaping will always be safer than smoking. The evidence is already there on that one!

The All Important Part

Of course, the most important part of this post is what the Riftcore actually performs like. I’ll be honest, as much as I wanted this to be great, part of me was reluctant to be as impressed as I was. After all, I was impressed initially with the NCR which turned out to be a letdown. Vaping is a passion and a hobby so innovation just excites me as much as the next guy. But here we have a fantastically well-made tank, a great concept and a concept that truly works. There are a few things I would like to see, I will add those that the end.

Joyetech Riftcore Duo RTA Flavour

I have trialled this using various liquids with varying amounts of flavour depth and I have to say in most cases the Riftcore performs very well indeed. Stronger flavours work best in this I found that more delicate flavours did not come through quite as well. Going a tad over the recommended 40w to vape gives better performance depending on the liquid. I was vaping between 53-60 watts was perfect. Not only was the flavour better but the vapour was much warmer than when I was vaping at the recommended wattage. At 40w it was far too cool for me.

Joyetech Riftcore Duo RTA Airflow and Wicking

The slightly thinner than normal airflow is compensated for by having the third slot available for use. It does not make it as restrictive as I first thought that it may be. There is a slight restriction but nothing that bothers me greatly. Juice wicking is another positive point. The small amount of cotton surely assists here but the elements keep up with even constant chain vaping with no sign of a dry hit yet!

Other Points

One thing that I noticed was the ohms were jumping up quite a lot whilst vaping, normal for this material perhaps but without knowing what it is I am not sure. I did what I would do on a normal coil and check all post connections were tight etc and still remained the same. It makes no noticeable difference to the vape experience. For me, it was jumping from 0.25 to 0.49 but stayed at 0.49. I recall the NCR also jumped up too but was all over the shop whilst firing. It’s worth mentioning that with the Riftcore as soon as you stop firing the ohm level returns to normal instantly.

I used various juices all of which were very sweet. The reason is to see how dirty the element could get and how easy it self-cleans. There is still an element of user input needed for the self-clean. Lower wattage to 30 and dry burn, that is it. Clean coils and gunk free!

Joyetech Riftcore Duo RTA Pros and Cons

My pros for this are easier and I was surprised that it was harder to find cons. So first off with the pros.

Pros

The build quality is excellent, just as I expected it to be. Joyetech is one of the better companies in terms of churning out well made and high-quality products. Ease of building, aside from the fact I had no building to do as it was all done. Changing the cotton is easy as pie! Flavour, this was very good and better than expected, far better than the NCR. Precut strips of cotton included give you an idea for when using your own cotton on the thickness and lengths you need. Self-cleaning was easy enough and got rid of all the residue from the coils very quickly. Vapour production was also very good.

Cons

I could not really find anything that I did not like. Things I would perhaps like to see in the future mainly. All I could come up with was different rated elements. Perhaps 0.15ohms & 1.0ohm to suit all areas of the market. Whether this would be possible I do not know. The only other thing is really something that would prevent those arguments of whether it is safe or not. Let us know the material and so people can make that informed decision rather than jumping to conclusions about what it is or how safe it is without the facts. Sure this may be revealed in the test reports but earlier notification would be good.

Some may say that the elements lifespan will take the fun out of building your tank but for a simple piece of kit that needs no attention other than looking out for your cotton, this is great. Yes, you would be seeing fancy builds here. But it is what it is.

Joyetech Riftcore Duo RTA Final Thoughts

Overall I am incredibly impressed with this and can see it fitting into the market very well. For once coil-less technology succeeds and this time could truly be game-changing.

I am Jay (VapingWithJay) and I am a passionate vaper from the UK. Not only an avid vaper but I love nothing more than to share my thoughts on the latest products in the industry and helping others on their vaping journeys. Happy reading and vape on!